Different types of physical fitness routines are increasingly popular, many of which involve exercise equipment including pulley and cable mechanisms. Pilates equipment, weight machines and other types of exercise equipment having pulley and cable mechanisms are increasingly used both at fitness centers and at home.
For fitness centers, it is cost effective for the fitness center to provide exercise machines that may be used by many individuals. Because the individuals using these devices differ in body shape and size, however, it is desirable that these machines be adjustable to avoid the potential discomfort and injury that may result when an exercise device is not properly adjusted so that it is biomechanically aligned for the user's body size and shape. It is also desirable for these machines to provide proper biomechanical alignment so that, for example, the intended muscle group is worked, or the intended muscle is stretched.
For example, a taller user will typically require an exercise device to be adjusted differently than if it were used by a shorter person. And even for a given user, an exercise device will likely need adjustment to accommodate different exercise positions for that given user's body size and shape for best exercise practice and performance.
Where exercise equipment is used at home, an exercise device may also need to accommodate the sizes and shapes of various family members and the different exercises for which the equipment is used. Space constraints may also exist on the fitness center floor or in the home, thereby dictating that only one or a limited number of exercise machines are available. This again increases the need for an exercise device to be adjustable to accommodate multiple individuals.
Despite the need for adjustability, some forms of exercise equipment with pulley and cable mechanisms cannot be adjusted at all because they include pulley mechanisms that are fixedly attached to the exercise equipment in one location. Other forms of exercise equipment do not have multiple locations, such as holes, at which to mount pulleys. Pilates machines are an example of an exercise device that lacks adjustability of its pulley and cable mechanisms. In any event, these forms of exercise equipment do not provide proper biomechanical positioning of the pulley and cable mechanism in relation to users of different shapes and sizes.
Other forms of exercise equipment, such as a lat pull down machine, may include a linear mechanism to slide a pulley along a fixed track to provide some adjustability. However, these mechanisms are costly because they involve numerous parts and are difficult to assemble, they are bulky and heavy, and may only offer a narrow range of adjustable positions. Furthermore, the typical linear sliding mechanism would not be suitable for certain exercise equipment such as Pilates machines.
It is thus an objective of the present invention to provide an adjustable mounting device for a pulley and cable mechanism that may be safely and quickly mounted at different locations on an exercise device. It is also an objective of the present invention that the adjustable device be easy to assemble, relatively inexpensive to manufacture without large, bulky components and easy to use with the exercise equipment. In this manner, the present invention overcomes the shortcomings of current exercise devices by providing proper biomechanical alignment for users of different shapes and sizes and for different types of exercises being performed by a given user.